


Loneliness

by Nsfwitchy



Series: Looking In A Mirror [1]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, i guess??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:14:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26078545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nsfwitchy/pseuds/Nsfwitchy
Summary: Bruce and 514a have a talk the night 5 stays at the manor and discover they have more in common than just looks
Relationships: 514A/Bruce Wayne
Series: Looking In A Mirror [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1893241
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Loneliness

**Author's Note:**

> Is this title creative? No but it's midnight and I'm posting this spur of the moment

“So what’s it like?”  
“What?” Bruce asked, turning groggily to face the boy behind him.  
“Being Bruce Wayne.”  
Oh...It was late, and he’d really just wanted to grab a drink, but it looked like their guest couldn’t sleep. Or, hadn’t slept.  
514a appeared wide awake as he lurked in the living room. Had he followed him down here, or had he been there the whole night...?  
He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but it certainly hadn’t been that.  
“It’s.. um,” What was it like being Bruce Wayne?  
It was... sad. A feeling of loss he couldn’t fill, no matter how he tried. An emptiness that threatened to swallow him whole. A desire for change, and the clawing feeling that nothing he did seemed to make any difference. Maybe that’s why he tried though. If he could make one good thing happen, maybe it would compensate for the loneliness. For the loss.  
He couldn’t say that. He would never say that. 514a looked at him with such sad eyes. Such familiar eyes.  
“It’s... ok,” Bruce forced a tired smile. 5 swayed in the doorway, as if contemplating whether or not that was a satisfying enough answer.  
“What about you?” It was a dumb question, but it just came out. What about him? He had a memory of a year and a half and scars to prove nothing good had happened in that time.  
Bruce’s silent cursing was interrupted by a strange breathy sound - a noise that might have passed as a laugh. Was he... laughing?  
“You wanna know what it’s like to be me?”  
“.... Yes.” It was an awkward ‘yes’, but he was curious. Who wouldn’t be? This doppelgänger showed up in his house, ate his food, borrowed his clothes - could you blame him for being a little curious?  
“It’s...” 5 paused for a moment, as if thinking, and then Bruce watched as his face fell.  
“Lonely.”  
“... Lonely,” Bruce echoed back, gaze dropping down to the glass in his hands.  
There was something about hearing your own voice telling you they were lonely that packed an extra punch, one the young billionaire hadn’t been prepared for. An acknowledgment of a feeling 5 had no way of knowing Bruce even had, and yet he suddenly felt as if the clone knew all his secrets. He’d never felt so naked before, so vulnerable, as he did hearing the admittance that he was lonely. It felt like an admission of guilt.  
How had they lived two separate lives, and yet both managed to end up here? Lonely. Was this just some cursed fate? Is this really what it meant to be Bruce Wayne? To be lonely? If so, was it not, just a little bit his fault then, that 514a felt this way? After all.. He was him.  
“I never had anyone before now..” 5 spoke again, trying to fill the silence, “... At least you have Alfred. And that girl..”  
“Selina,” Bruce lifted his head. It was polite to look at people when they spoke to you, and Bruce was nothing if not polite to his guests. Even when being polite felt like a stab in the chest - when his voice somehow didn’t feel like it was his anymore, and yet still sounded all too familiar. His own face stared back at him, and he could see a sadness etched into it - hiding in the dark circles under his eyes, the slight downturn of his lips.. It was like looking in a mirror. Is this really what he looked like when he wasn’t trying to hide...?  
“Yeah, Selina. You have them,” 5 offered a small smile, and once again Bruce swore he could see right through him, “I just have me.”  
“That’s not true,” Maybe it was the guilt speaking. Maybe it was even the loneliness. Perhaps, it was the selfish martyrdom he’d taken up in their stead, an ignorance of his own problems in an attempt to fix everybody else’s - but he couldn’t just leave the discussion there. He was the only one to be lonely in Wayne manor, and if 5 was him, the least he could do was grant him the grace of company in this isolation.  
“You have me.”


End file.
